Page 2 of Sucker
The last time I was in the same room with her, she was a six-year-old girl with pigtails—my best friend and business partner’s daughter. She wanted to show me that she’d learned how to jump rope. Normally, I had all the time in the world for that little girl. But that day, I’d told her ‘not now’.
“What about my sucker?” she pouted. It was a tradition. Every time I saw her, she’d show me something she learned, and I’d give her a cherry sucker—her favorite—as a reward for being clever before I headed down to the basement to work with her father. But I’d forgotten all about it that day, too distracted with adult problems to consider a little girl.What an asshole.
I sit back, my chair creaking under my weight as I run my hand over my chin. So much time has passed. She’s a woman now, the pigtails replaced with a tight bun high up on her delicate head. She’s turned into a beauty, curves for days, lips that would tempt even the most devout of men. I’ve barely stopped thinking about her since she came to my attention a few weeks ago. She’d attended the first in our multi interview process for our coveted paid internships and was flagged as a security risk. Corporate espionage is a huge problem in my line of work, so facial recognition is used to scan everyone who enters the building. She was singled out because she wasn’t who she said she was. One look at the beautiful creature on the monitor and something inside me shifted. I couldn’t look away.
Then came the complication of realizing who she was—oris. The daughter of my ex-best friend, ex-business partner, ex-anchor... Memories flash of a time fifteen years before. The arguing. The empty promises. The disappointment. I had to cut him loose. The man was going to drag me down with him.
But I never turned my back on her.
Maybe I should have stayed more involved though, checked in personally instead of sending money as a bandaid to her situation. Seeing her as a woman and reacting like a horny teen is less than ideal. I shouldn’t be thinking of her that way, but my dick hasn’t received the memo. All women were girls once. And at twenty-one-years-old, she’s not the girl I knew. I’m not the man she knew either. Everything is different. Time does that to people.
When the elevator opens, she’s the last to get off. She seems to hesitate, allowing the others to stream past her. I feel a surge of annoyance when a man brushes past her enough to jolt her body. I growl.I’m protective of her.I always have been. Although the last fifteen years, I’ve done so at a distance. But now she’s here, showing up in my life using another person’s name. “What are your plans, angel?” Did she find out who’s behind the scholarship she ‘won’? Or is there more to this duplicitous visit?
And do I want her here?
Angel…
Mine.
I look down as my dick tents my pants.Fuck.
Willa
“And the break room is here.” My supervisor, Caroline, enters a large kitchen area that is stocked like a convenience store. There’s a candy wall with Pick’n’Mix buckets, a popcorn machine and baskets of fruit, energy bars, and to celebrate the day, there’s also a basket of chocolate hearts. James Tech employees arespoiled.
“This is insane,” I mutter, my words coming out in an awed breath as I take it all in.
“Mr. James likes his employees to be well fed and energized,” Caroline explains. “You can help yourself to whatever, but mostly you’ll be fetching snacks and coffee for everyone on the team.” She gives me a rundown on how the coffee machine works and hands me a printout that lists how each person on our team likes their coffee.
“Thanks,” I say, adding it to the several other lists I have tucked under my arm on a clipboard. There’s a lot to remember here, and I’m getting frustrated. All I really want to know, is where the archive room is. Then I can do what I need to do and get the hell out of here before all this Valentine’s energy rubs off on me. The team I’ve been assigned to is responsible for making sure all the love messages get delivered properly. Normally, I can bunker down and ignore the canoodling couples, but if I have to have it shoved in my face all day, I’m likely to lose my mind. And that’s not going to help me on my mission.
“You missed the memo about wearing pink or red in honor of the day, but don’t let that make you feel left out.” Caroline smiles as she looks me up and down before she plucks a chocolate heart from the basket. “Here. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
“Ah, thanks.” I take it from her like it’s made of fire.
She clears her throat. “OK. Well, that’s about it. I’ll show you to your desk and then you can get started.”
“My…what? What about the rest of the work?” I race along behind her as she speed walks out of the break room and along the corridor.
She laughs over her shoulder. “Sweetheart, you’re an intern. Getting coffee, delivering food and running errandsisyour job.”
I’m practically running on my toes to keep up. I’m tall, but this woman’s legs must end at her armpits based on the length of her stride. “Yes, but, don’t I have to return files? And um, take old files to the archive or something?”
Stopping beside a tiny desk shoved into the corner of the room, she turns to me and smiles. “We’re striving toward becoming a paperless firm. Besides a few memos and what-not—” she gestures to the papers I’m holding “—most of our files are kept on the servers and backed up offsite.”
“So, there’s no paper files or boxes of old disks I need to sort through?”
She frowns then giggles. “You’re joking, right? This disappointed look is a joke?” She circles her index finger in the direction of my face.
“You got me. It’s a joke.” I fake laugh as a pit forms in the base of my stomach.Am I wasting my time here?Hours of research led me to believe I’d find what I wanted inside this building. If the original coding isn’t in an archive box somewhere, then where is it?
“Thankgod. I was worried you were an uber nerd for a second there.” She smiles and gives my arm a friendly squeeze before lowering her voice. “But if you really want to geek out over this place and the tasty treat who owns it, the education center is where you want to go.” She gives me a wink then moves away, practically disappearing in the sea of pink and red workers.
The tasty treat who owns it.I can never get past the fact that Landon James is a conniving thief. But I can't pretend I didn’t notice that he’s the kind of man who’s grown more attractive with age. When I was small, I didn’t even notice the model-like good looks he possessed—dark hair with smatterings of gray, and mischievous blue eyes. But as time went by, and my curiosity urged me to find out more about him, I admit the chiseled jaw and gleaming, soulful eyes caught my attention. A lot of tech guys are skinny, pale things, but Mr. James is big and brawny. He looks like he’d be just as at home chopping wood in the forest as he does at the head of a boardroom table. It’s why he’s been named one of the country’s sexiest bachelors under fifty for as long as I can remember. He’s a catch that no woman has been able to tie down.Maybe he’s so greedy he can’t share his money with a wife either?
Taking a seat at my desk, I pull up the internal floor list and search for the education center Carolyn mentioned. I remember coming across it when I was researching this place, but I never considered it to be the place I’d get my answers—only more lies developed by a team if PR professionals. But it’s worth a look.
I don’t get time to visit until the second half of my lunch break, but when I open the door and look around the expansive room, lies are exactly what I find.
